Aopen AK73 Pro AMD Athlon VIA KT133
Thursday, January 18, 2001
Test Results
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Motherboard
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BIOS
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Chipset
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Drivers
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AOpen AK73-Pro
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R1.08
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VIA KT133
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VIA patch 2.30,0014
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Processor
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Memory
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AMD athlon T-Birds 1Ghz
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128MB PC133 CAS2
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Hard disk drive
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Graphic card
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Quantum Fireball KA 9.1
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Chaintech R170 GeForce 256 SDR
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Operating system
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Built
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Video drivers
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DirectX
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Windows98
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4.10 1998
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Nvidia 4.11.01.0368
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7.0a
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Game
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Resolution
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Refresh
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Vsync
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Color
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Texture
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Filtration
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Quake2 3.20
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800 X 600
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75Hz
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Off
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16-bit
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16-bit
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bi-linear
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Game
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Resolution
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Refresh
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Vsync
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Color
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Texture
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Filtration
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Quake3 1.08
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800 X 600
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75Hz
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Off
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16-bit
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16-bit
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Tri-linear
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Mòmoire suggòròe
Corsair 128Mb SDRAM PC133 CAS2
Mushkin 128Mb SDRAM PC133 CAS2
Mushkin 128Mb HSDRAM PC150 CAS2 = Tested
Micron 128Mb SDRAM PC133 CAS2 = Tested
Transcend 128Mb SDRAM PC133
Winstone99 - Winbench99
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Ziff Davis Winstone99 - Winbench99
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Winbench CPUmark99
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90.73
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Business Winstone99
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33.7
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Content Creation 2000
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33.63
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Bapco Sysmark2000
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Benchmark
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Official Run
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189
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Video sub-system tests
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Quake2 version 3.20
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AMD Athlon
Classic 1Ghz @ 1Ghz
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AMD Athlon
Classic @ 1060hz
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800 X 600 X 75Hz X 16-bit
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181.95 FPS
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183.12
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Quake3
Test 1.08
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AMD Athlon
Classic 1Ghz @ 1Ghz
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AMD Athlon
Classic 1Ghz @ 1060Mhz
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800 X 600 X 75Hz X 16-bit
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100.13 FPS
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101.67
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The Overclocking tests ran so well in this case that we were able to push the FSB to 106MHz without any problems.
Disk sub-system tests
Overall Quality Evaluation
The evaluation table below shows both the strong and weak points of the tested motherboard. No need to remind you that performance is not the sole purchasing criteria in a motherboard. Most of today's motherboards exhibit performance very close to each other, so we need additional information in order to help us distinguish the real advantages of a motherboard compared to its competitors. This is exactly where this evaluation table comes in handy.
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Aopen AK73 Pro AMD Athlon VIA KT133
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Feature
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Evaluation
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Design Originality
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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3
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Circuit Board Quality
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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5
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Component Layout
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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4
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Capacitiors
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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5
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CPU Retention Mechanism
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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5
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Amounts of Expansion Slots
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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4
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Amount of Memory sockets
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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4
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Ease of installation
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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5
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BIOS Setup Design
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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5
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Performance
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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5
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Overclockability
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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5
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Stability
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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5
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Bundled Software
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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5
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Bundled Hardware
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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5
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Users Manual Quality
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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5
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Packing Quality
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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5
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Features supported
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ATA66/100
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PC133
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Wake On LAN
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Modem ring
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Pwr Fail Res
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5
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Features supported (suite)
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Sensor
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AMR/CNR
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Mouse Pwr On
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Susp. to RAM
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Susp. to Disk
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4
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Features supported (suite)
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IRDA
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SCSI
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Keyb. Pwr On
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Hardw. mon.
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Vcore adj.
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4
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Features supported (suite)
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RAID
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Alarm
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Soft Menu
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L2 latency adj.
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IRQ assign.
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2
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Total Score obtainned for this motherboard
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90 point out of 100
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Features color codes: Blue = supported, Red = optional, Black = not supported
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Conclusions
The weak points
No ISA slots
No manual assignment of IRQs
The strong points
Excellent performance
Independant memory bus
Integrated hardware monitoring
Interesting software package
Suspend to Disk function
Integrated AC"97 sound-card
Special Mentions
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The AK73-Pro is, without a doubt, an excellent entry into the market on AOpen's part. Asides from the notable inability to manual assign IRQs, we had very little negative commentary to level against it. For that reason, we give the AK73-Pro our highest recommendations, and our "Top Grade Hardware Award".
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For additional information, visit AOpen's web site.
Discuss this article in the Forum.
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